Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, August 4: NIXON BY NIXON: IN HIS OWN WORDS
Peter W Kunhardt’s damning reveal of the disgraced former President makes its debut as part of HBO Documentaries’ Summer series, in conjunction with the upcoming 40th anniversary of Nixon’s resignation from the presidency.
Culled from over 3700 hours of secret recordings the President made while in office – and fought to keep classified until his death – Kunhardt’s film delivers on its title, offering Nixon’s uncensored, off-the-cuff commentary on the major concerns that affected his administration, from Vietnam to Watergate. Acknowledging from the outset the criticism that such a project of editorial selection would engender, the film offers a 1982 warning from Nixon’s former chief domestic advisor, John Erlichman, about forming an erroneous impression of his complex boss based on snippets of tapes. As a sort of corrective, Kunhardt interweaves footage from Nixon’s post-presidential public interviews – his official reflection on key events of his time in office. Presented in juxtaposition with the more candid closed-door recordings, however, they generally don’t do the man any favors, as he is caught in misdirection or outright lie more than once, or spews uncomfortably racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist rhetoric as a matter of course. While more conventionally presented than Penny Lane’s playful OUR NIXON, Kunhardt’s project provides an insightful, incendiary peek at a paradoxically distrustful yet unguarded world leader.
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